Senior Moments: The transfer of the lion of defense

The Foo Dog came with the marriage. I didn’t like him from the beginning, but we were, after all, blending our families. And the Foo, a ceramic Chinese guardian lion — not a dog after all — was definitely a part of my husband’s. George said that in Chinese tradition, the Foo keeps evil spirits away. His mean-looking face and menacing expression (that would be the Foo, not George) also kept me away.

My first reaction to the greenish, gritted-teeth lion was similar to walking into a room and finding a large spider on the ceiling. I wanted to run out of the room and shriek, “Get rid of it!”

But, of course, I knew there was no getting rid of the Foo.

Over the more than 25 years that we have been together, I have moved “Fooey,” as I came to think of him, from one place to another in our home. When we were first married, Fooey actually spent a harrowing few weeks on our living room mantel. My goal after that was to keep him a part of the household, but in a spot where he did not startle me.

Eventually, he wound up on top of the bookcase in George’s home office.

A few weeks ago, Fooey went bye-bye… and it wasn’t even my idea. It turns out that my husband bought the grizzly little guy as a gift to himself on his 40th birthday. And he decided to pass it on to his daughter in New York as she turns 40. It is a rather wonderful concept, passing along the keeper-away of evil spirits.

As we cleaned him up for his trip across the country, I noticed something I had never seen before. Fooey is a she, not a he. Unlike the male, she has her right paw protectively over her cub.

So now I understand why George was safe napping in his office all these years with Fooey teetering on top of the bookcase. She had her paw around him.

Happy birthday, Jessica. May the Foo Dog keep you safe, as it has us. And here’s a little secret: I am actually going to miss her!